The IFE (The International Food and Drink Event at Excel) was a great event this year. In terms of produce, the big ingredients at the show were nettles, wild garlic and Jersey Royal potatoes.

For two days, I hosted, compered and did demos for the Great British Kitchen (GBK). Their stand was about showcasing British produce, British ingredients and British chefs. We were talking about everything from old-fashioned techniques to foraging to new modern twists on street food. On Tuesday, I was looking after the skillery for the Craft Guild of Chefs.

At GBK, chef Oliver Fox did ‘Back To The Future’. He took the concept of a carrot cake and turned it on its head. Everything about a carrot cake he deconstructed and turned into a showcase of heritage carrots.

Carrot Dish

Adrian Coulison from Eden Catering did a demo on the Great British feast. Huge platters are the new trend at weddings. Nothing is cut up and portioned – it’s help yourself and rip a leg off a chicken.

Feasting dish

Michael Moore, a good old-fashioned chef, focused on pickling and preserving. Skills such as how to prolong the life of seasonal fruit. He did some really wonderful things with flavouring pickling liquids.

I did a British street food demo. I did a take on Indian – broccoli dosa with chickpea flour and a sweet potato and bacon filling with a pomegranate and beetroot dressing – really colourful. Then I cooked tenderstem broccoli – sautéing it with a bit of chilli and butter with some nice wild garlic alioli.

I was really intrigued by Douglas McMaster, who runs a restaurant called Silo in Brighton. The title of his talk was ‘WASTED: Insight into a unique, responsible approach to cooking’. He recycles everything, makes cheese from old milk, has zero waste.

It was a nice to see that people seemed to be steering back towards some of the classic techniques. Water baths have their place but use them wisely. Chefs are going back to sautéing in a pan and caramelising in butters. The proper old school ways of cooking.

A few years ago it was the other way around. It was all gels, foams and water baths. You sometimes forget these old techniques and why they are useful.

I also did some work for McCain. I had to think out of the box. What do you do with mashed potato? Rather than doing a croquette, I did a chocolate and fennel pollen cake (see recipe below). I used butter and sugar and used polenta in the mashed potato. I gave the cake some stability with an egg. Then you bake it like a sponge. I did a chocolate and orange sauce to go with it. McCain loved it because they had never once thought to put their mashed potato in a dessert. They don’t usually get chefs like me that are that creative.

Chocolate and fennel pollen cake with chocolate and orange sauce

Ingredients

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

80g fine polenta

20g dark coco powder

130g mashed potatoes (McCain)

zest 1 orange

2g fennel pollen or toasted fennel seeds

1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

Method

  1. In a large bowl, cream butter, orange, fennel and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg bit at a time, beating well after each addition. Add potato and beat in.
  2. Combine the polenta, cocoa and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture beating well
  3. Pour into a greased and floured ,round baking mould. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

For the sauce

20g granulated sugar

1  x oranges Juiced plus zest of one

100g dark chocolate

Orange fillets

30g candid orange zest (orange peel julienne blanched and dipped in syrup)

Method

  1. In a saucepan dilute the sugar and zest into the juice and then bring to a simmer and reduce down to a syrup
  2. Melt the chocolate into the juice over a low heat then fold in the orange fillets.
  3. Garnish cake with sauce

Spicy potato balls with onion seed and gram flour crust, with Asian style salad and charred sweet corn and chilli dressing

Ingredients

30mls vegetable oil

5g diced red chilli

1g mustard Seed

1g curry leaves

1g cumin seeds

1g turmeric powder

1g crushed coriander seeds

Garlic and ginger chopped

60g sliced red onion

8g salt

20g chopped coriander

300g simply mash potato (McCain)

1 egg if needed

100g gram flour

10g onion seeds

Oil for frying

 Method

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan then add the spices and chilli. Cook until seeds start to pop
  2. Now add the onion, salt, garlic and chilli and cook until onion has softened. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
  3. In a bowl mix the mash with the onion mix and form a dough. May need some gram flour to dry mix out. Mould into 30g balls.
  4. Mix the gram flour and onion seeds together. Then If required dip the balls in egg or water and then coat into the gram flour mix. Ensure completely coated
  5. Heat the oil to 180c then fry balls until even coloured and golden brown remove and drain

Charred sweet corn and chilli relish

Ingredients

1 corn on the cob

60g red onion diced

4g red chilli strips

1g cumin seeds

1g onion seeds

1g turmeric

10g garlic and ginger

50g balsamic vinegar

50g honey

10g grain mustard

10g chopped coriander

30g rapeseed oil

Method

  1. In a griddle pan or under a grill char the corn cob all over and then allow to cool slightly
  2. Warm the oil in a frying pan and then add the spice and cook for a minute or so .
  3. Now add the garlic, ginger, onion and chilli and fry off now add the honey and vinegar and bring to the boil and simmer. Reduce by half
  4. Using a sharp knife cut the charred corn kernals of the cob. Then add this and  the remaining ingredients to the pan and warm through

Salad Ingredients

40g carrot julienne

40g shredded Brussel sprouts

30g sliced spring onions

10g baby kayle leaves

Dukkah spice mix

Method

  1. Combine all the vegetables together mix a small amount of the dressing and then sprinkle over the spice mix

Chilli charred Tender stem broccoli with wild garlic butter and Aoli sauce

Ingredients

200g tender stem broccoli

10g sliced red chilli strips de-seeded

50g butter salted

10g Wild garlic

40g cooked butter beans

Egg yolk

20g Lime juice

100g Vegetable oil

Sea salt

Method

  1. Blanch tender stem broccoli in boiling salted water for a few minutes then refresh in cold water
  2. Whisk the egg yolk with the lime juice and then slowly add the oil to form a sauce
  3. Chop the wild garlic and then blend the butter beans with the Aoli base. Folding the wild garlic

To serve stand the brocooli stems in a bucket and have the dip in a mini bucket allow the crowd to munch and dip.

Roasted sweet potato and bacon dosa with wild garlic and beetroot dressing

For the dosa

Ingredients

100g of gram flour

100g rice flour

10g dried yeast

100ml coconut milk

Warm Water

5g sugar

50g broccoli puree

5g chopped coriander

Method

  1. Combine all the ingredients together to form a thickish batter. Leave to prove in a warm place for about 20 minutes
  2. Heat a frying pan and add some oil. Make little thin pancakes and cook on both side
  3. Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly

For the dressing

Ingredients

100g cooked beetroot fine dice

10g wild garlic leaves chopped

20g pomegranate seeds

100ml greek style yoghurt

½ lime juice

10g chopped coriander

Toasted cumin seeds

Method

  1. Combine all ingredients and either leave rustic or blend to a smooth sauce

For the filling

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato peeled and rustic dice

6 rashers of dry cured bacon lardons

10g chopped coriander

½ lemon juice

1 spring onion finely sliced

Rapeseed oil

 Method

  1. in a frying pan fry the bacon lardons so a nice caramilised colour is achieved then remove and keep to one side
  2. add a touch of water to the pan to lift off the residue and then add the oil
  3. add the sweet potato. Colour and cook to a nice caramelised look. Then add the bacon to warm through remove from the heat and then mix with the remaining ingredients

To serve lay a dosa out and then place a little dressing on the base. Add some of the filling and roll up. Cut into two pieces and then drizzle over the dressing.

0 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read More